


Slayers and their Demons

by UisceOneLove



Series: Dark Stony Bingo 2021 [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Buffy The Vampire Slayer Fusion, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angst, Dark Steve Rogers, Evil Steve Rogers, Hopeful Ending, Hurt, M/M, Mentioned Past Character Death, Mild Blood, Peter Parker is Tony's Brother, Slayer Tony Stark, Soulless Steve Rogers, Torture, Vampire Steve Rogers, Watcher Nick Fury, Witch Natasha Romanov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:29:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29876355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UisceOneLove/pseuds/UisceOneLove
Summary: Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU.Tony hasn't seen Steve since he lost his soul and became Steven once again. But now the vampire is back, and it's time that Tony takes care of it.
Relationships: Bruce Banner/Clint Barton, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Dark Stony Bingo 2021 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2193099
Comments: 4
Kudos: 20
Collections: SteveTony Acheronian Bingo 2021





	Slayers and their Demons

**Author's Note:**

> Did the GDV warning since there are some fighting and blood and such soooo....
> 
> STB Bingo Square: "Vampire"  
> Dark Stony Card #2, Square: "Stitches"

Patrol in the cemetery was something that Tony never got used to, even after three years of it. His personal discomfort didn't matter as long as the job got done and the forces of darkness were eradicated, yadda yadda.

When Tony said he wouldn't mind being important, this wasn't what he had in mind. Who asks to be the one thing standing between evil beings and the world be eternally damned in darkness or whatever?

"Shit!" Clint groaned with a heavy thud. 

Tony and Bruce stopped walking to wait for the blond, Clint sprawled over the tombstone he'd tripped over. Bruce grimaced in dismay and walked over to help him up. 

"Brucie-poo, this is why you should've left the boy toy at home," Tony said with disapproval and heavy judgment. 

"While you use him to hunt down your psycho ex?" Clint challenged, letting Bruce dust him off with an appreciative glance. 

"Clint," Bruce frowned, eyes cutting to Tony.

Clint held his hands out, waving his wooden spike in Tony's direction. "What? It's true."

"He's right," Tony shrugged, double-checking his newly improved crossbow, "you don't have to be here. It's my tragic love story to finish, you two can go wait up with Natasha and Fury."

Bruce shook his head and hooked his arm around Clint's to keep him close. "You're not going through this alone," he said as he dragged Clint along the path, "and I know you, Tony. When it comes down to it, someone needs to be there so you don't hesitate."

Tony stiffened. "I'm not going to hesitate. I'm not some lovesick angsty teenager anymore."

"Steve's--"

"Steve's gone," Tony states coldly.

"You're why his  _ soul _ is gone," Bruce said more gently, "and you're not your best when you're swimming in guilt that he wouldn't want you to have." 

"Thanks for the pep talk," he muttered.

Clint smiled at Bruce. "He's the best at them."

Tony rolled his eyes and wished that Natasha had come along instead. She'd stayed behind to do the tracking spell, unfortunately, so Clint's the one who volunteered in her place.

Clint made it tempting to leave him as bait for some unrelated vampires. 

Steven hadn't shown up in over six months. It was a selfish hope that they wouldn't cross paths again. But Bruce was right; it was Tony's fault, after all the warnings the fanger gave him. Tony couldn't help himself. Saw it as a challenge. 

Now he was left heartbroken while Steven was heart _ less _ .

Barely five minutes later, Clint spoke up again.

"Okay, I'm thinking we call it a night. No vampy exes are here, clearly. No one else is popping up for a show. I say we pick up some pizza and head back to Fury's for a pow-wow."

"Feel free to," Tony replied. "As I said, I can do this myself."

Steven was back, he had made a point of making sure Tony knew. The vampire had been there,  _ at his home _ , to taunt him with a sketch of his brother Peter with his throat ripped out and a bouquet of roses. 

Steven's out here somewhere. Steven's playing a game.

Tony knows that it'll most likely be a trap but he still had to play along. 

Their paths were intertwined and so he was going to see it through to the end. 

"Do we have a location, Nat?" Tony asked when his watch went off. Apple Watches can kiss his ass, he made better ones. 

" _ It wasn't difficult _ ," Natasha answered, but it wasn't with her usual collected confidence. There was an edge to it that from other people sounded like worry.

"Nothing's ever difficult for you, you're the strongest witch we know."

" _ He's home, Tony _ ."

Tony swallowed, his eyes shutting to block out the emotions as the answer came to him without her needing to give it.

"He's been in his crypt this whole time?" Clint groaned. 

" _ Tony _ ," Natasha started, but he was quick to stop her. 

"I know." It's not Steve, who was driven through sentimentality. "Steven's got a strategy."

"He's trying to throw you off emotionally," Bruce said, knowingly. They all knew it. 

Still, Tony nodded. "That's right, Brucie." 

" _ What would you like us to do? _ " Natasha asked. He could imagine the look on her face since he was certain that she knew what his plan was going to be.

"I'm going in alone. I started this and I'm going to end it." 

Bruce made a distressed noise as he made an aborted step towards Tony. "You're going to get yourself killed, Tony. You know it's what he wants."

"You're making a poorly timed joke, right?" Clint demanded. 

" _ Stark, don't you dare do something so irrational and reckless, _ " Fury shouted over the comm line.

"I'll ask about forgiveness later," Tony bid, terminating the call, then turned to Bruce and Clint. "I'm going. Not asking, not discussing, I'm doing it."

"Then we're going with you as back-up," Bruce insisted.

Tony wished that they could but he won't risk Steven using them against him. He pulled out two metal orbs from his pocket and pressed his thumb against a sensor before tossing them. Before his friends could react, restraints shot out of the orbs and wrapped them up tight, causing them both to topple to the ground. 

"Come on," Clint whined, struggling against the binds.

"Tony, don't do this," Bruce pleaded once more. 

Forgiveness was something that he will ask for later. Tony took off in a run, leaping and vaulting over tombstones to make the distance faster. Natasha and Fury will show up to help them before anything happens and Bruce was a lot stronger than he looks.

He already knew these streets by heart but the direct path near the town's edge where Steven's crypt was located felt like it was tattooed in his memory. He could avoid every scratch of the branches and bump of rocks beneath his feet. Losing Steve had meant never coming back to the crypt or re-visiting the memories that can with it. 

Tony slowed to a stop at its entrance. Its doors stood wide open in invitation. 

His watch alerted him to Nat trying to call him again but he sent the call to voicemail. He took one more check of his supplies and steeled himself. He could do this. He had to.

Steven was waiting for him out in the open.

There were bodies on the floor. Drained and staring at the ceiling with lifeless blank eyes. 

"I've missed your heartbeat," the vampire said, back to the slayer. Steven stood in front of the fireplace, fully relaxed as the flames doused him in golden light. Even now, Tony was unable to tear his eyes away from the way the burgundy tight-knit sweater clung to every contour of his muscles, or the black leather that hung on to Steven's legs. 

A dark chuckle left Steven's lips before he turned around. "I love to hear it beat so fast because of me. Like a hummingbird. Do I make you nervous, Tony?"

Tony's hand flexed around the handle of his crossbow as he puffed out his chest, summoning up all the bravado that he could. "Me? Nervous? Why would I be nervous?" he asked, walking down the two short steps to be level with the vampire. "The soulless vampire wearing my ex-boyfriend's face decided to come back in town and used one of the people that I love most to draw me in. Nothing nerve-inducing about that."

Steven opened his arms out in invitation to Tony, a parody of all those nights when Steve had offered him a comforting, loving embrace. "What can I say, Tony? There's something about a Slayer that makes it so hard to stay away." 

"You're a smart member of the undead," Tony countered, "you could have figured something out."

Steven's lips curled. "Then let's just go with the fact that I don't like unfinished business. You're a problem, Tony."

"Oh, I know. It's all in the job description." 

Steven tilted his head. "I could give you one last night, you know," he said, glancing briefly at the weapon Tony held as if it was inconsequential, "We can have one last lover's embrace. I'll even kill you painlessly. That's more than what the others would give you."

"Who says you're the one who's going to win?" Tony held up the crossbow and aimed it at Steven's heart.

The vampire looked at him like a child, a condescending smile taking form. "Oh, Tony," Steven cooed, "you may like to play the part of a big bad Slayer, but we both know the truth. You can't kill me. The love your heart pumps out wouldn't dare let you." 

"You've been gone a while, Steven. Things changed."

"I've yet to see that," he purred.

Steven dived a second before Tony sent the stake flying. The vampire rolled gracefully along the ground and shot up, racing right for Tony. The Slayer was quick-footed, too, dodging out of the way and reloading. 

"You would make a beautiful vampire yourself, Tony," Steven laughed, delighted in the chase. "All that power in you. We could show the world what a real power couple looks like."

Tony shot at the vampire again, taking bittersweet victory in it clipping Steven's shoulder. "The undead aesthetic doesn't really match my skin tone. And the diet's too raw for my tastes."

The vampire snarled and took shelter behind a column while Tony did the same. "You get used to it," he called out. "There are so many possibilities to eternal life. Unlimited potential for you and your technology." 

"It gets plenty of uses already," the Slayer returned. He tossed aside the crossbow and spun one of the stakes in his hand, listening for any footfalls.

A second too late, again, had Tony stepped out and been met by a hand to his throat. Steven slammed him against the column, his other hand bashing Tony's arm against the corner of it hard enough to make the stone crack and the crossbow clatter to the ground. 

Tony bit down on his cry of pain and shoved his knee into the vampire's chest to create rough space for a full shove with his foot, sending Steven skidding back several feet, stumbling over one of the corpses and giving the Slayer enough of a chance to retrieve the stake. 

"I love it when you put up such a strong fight," Steven grinned meanly, his face contorting and fangs extending, "I'll be sure to remember you this way when I'm draining your corpse of its blood." 

"The most romantic sentiment you've ever given me," Tony spat.

They collided once again, deflecting each other's hits cleanly. Steven's age and past fighting experience showed while Tony's lighter frame gave him a slightly higher speed advantage. Steven was able to give Tony's right wrist a sharp enough twist that he felt something give. 

"Even a Slayer can be so fragile," Steven tsked, falling back and evading when Tony aimed the stake for his chest. He used the momentum to grab the Slayer's arm and throw him at the fireplace, hitting the side of it and being swallowed by a wave of pain. 

"You're the most gorgeous thing I've seen in centuries, Tony, I'll give you that," Steven added, strolling over casually while he struggled to stand. The vampire gave him a sharp kick to the stomach that took the weight out from under him. "I could mold you so easily if you let me. An exchange of blood and this Slayer business will be over. You can be with me forever." 

" _ You _ aren't who I'd want to spend eternity with," Tony gasped.

Steven sneered. "Pathetic, serious Steve?" He knelt down by the slayer, picking up the stake and shoving Tony onto his back. The vampire moved to straddle his legs, trapping them beneath his weight. 

"He wasn't pathetic," Tony hissed. 

"Oh, but he was," Steven laughed. "Tied down by those pesky human emotions. So guilty all the time. A wimp. The melancholic artist who pined for the Slayer he was forbidden to love because it'd finally bring me back.  _ That _ was all truly a great punishment."

Steven leaned over the Slayer and cupped his face, looking down at him with a facade of pity. "I know what your punishment can be, Tony." 

"I'm already living it," Tony replied, aiming a fist at Steven's face with his good hand. The vampire's face rocked to the side but he didn't otherwise react. The vampire's teeth gleamed in the firelight, blood dripping from his mouth. 

"Guilt is a heavy burden," he crooned with agreement. "But there's a physical pain that comes with one losing or gaining a soul. I think you need to experience that pain. And maybe, just a little extra, for the lives you couldn't save when I was gone." 

Tony didn't see what Steven was doing until he felt the stake break through his skin and plunge inside his stomach. It was near the curve of his left hip, a blooming pain that felt like he set a UV bomb off inside of himself. He couldn't scream but he could feel the tears spill over down his face. He had nowhere to run, nowhere to look but at the face above him. Steven had reverted back to the handsome and human face Tony loved. 

So, this was his penance. 

The vampire shushed him softly and reached into his pocket to pull out a pocket knife, bringing out the blade. Tony had given that to Ms. Hill before Steven snapped her neck in the library. She'd been researching a spell for them to save Steve's soul but they hadn't found it. Tony assumed it was destroyed by Steven. 

"Pain looks...like a masterpiece on you," the vampire whispered. Tony was aware of the short bursts that licked at him as Steven cut into his skin. And then he wasn't; it was like the pain lulled him, or maybe the loss of blood. 

He might have even blacked out for a moment. 

Tony wasn't aware of anything again until he was coming to on a solid slab of stone, sans stake and shirt, and was bearing witness to Steven pushing a hooked needle through his skin. 

"Learning how to suture was quite helpful in the wars," Steven mused, pulling the hook until the black string attached was taught. 

"I thought you were going to drain me dry," Tony whispered, unable to keep his head up. 

Steven didn't answer him right away, content to close the Slayer up in a crude but perfect fashion. His hand was steady with each weave of the needle, the closing of Tony's skin a refresher in what created the gashes. 

"I told you it's not the way I want it to go." Steven took his time, digging the needle deep with every stitch. Tony winced with every prick and tug, too weak to fight to get away from it. "Having you by my side, ruthless and bloodthirsty, that's what I'll take first." 

"What? Because you love me?" Tony mocked weakly. Steve loved him. Not Steven.

Steven gave him a patient smile as he finished the last stitch. "No. Not this version of you. But the version of you that can bite into dinner with me and drain them side-by-side? A soulless Slayer? That's the kind of Tony that I can see myself loving for eternity."

It was grotesque and wrong, the vision Steven held for the future. It's not the life that he wanted with Steve and it was the last thing that the good version of this vampire ever wanted to be again. 

Tony was the silent one this time as Steven moved through every single cut now that the hole in his stomach was closed. If Steven was going to force the change on him then it shouldn't matter, all these wounds. It was the vampire making his point and it worked. 

How many victims were out there? Tony refused to look through the news himself and no one else made the attempt to share if they did. Fury surprised him most of all by being complicit in Tony's ignorance. 

"And if I say no?"

Steven paused, considering. He leaned on his elbows next to Tony's head. "Well, I think that you'll thank me for not listening once you've turned." 

"I won't."

"We'll see." Steven stroked his thumb along Tony's mouth. "Would you like a kiss first?"

Tony refused to open his mouth with an answer, hoping that the new burst of vitriol in his eyes was answer enough. 

Steven chuckled, then shifted his face to its monstrous one again. "Stubborn until the end."

The Slayer braced for the sting of Steven's fangs. He felt breath against his neck and squeezed his eyes shut, already forgiving Steve for what Steven wsa going to do.

Then there was the sound of shattering and the whir of something in the air before it made impact, and Steven's presence was no longer there.

"Holy fuck, Tony." 

Tony slowly opened his eyes to the sight of his gang and Fury rushing over to him, Clint's own wide in horror as he lowered his crossbow. A turn of the head gave the Slayer just enough vision to see Steven on the ground, unmoving, a thin stake protruding from his back. 

But Steven wasn't turning to ash. 

"This is why I told you not to be fucking stupid, Stark," Fury scolded with only half of the heat. Natasha and Clint were helping Tony sit up, whimpers escaping with every jerk of the stitches, while Bruce and the Watcher were pulling up the unconscious vampire. 

"What did you do to him?" Tony asked the witch.

"A special knockout," she answered, "He'll be sleeping for a few hours."

"We should fucking kill him," Clint growled. "Look at what he's done." 

Natasha side-eyed Tony. "It's up to Tony. But he should know that we found it."

"Found what?" Tony asked, his weight going into her side while Clint did his best to keep it distributed evenly. 

"Maria's spell," she replied. "She'd hidden it in one of Fury's books. We can bring Steve back, Tony. If that's what you still want."

Honestly, Tony had too many cuts and holes to think straight. He was tired, probably needed a transfusion, and he'd been caught in the emotional undertow that he'd been staving off for six months. None of that stopped him from flopping his head to the side enough to get a good look at the man he loved being dragged along by Bruce and Fury. 

Like this, it was as if it was Steve again, and they were helping him get help, too. 

"I want him back," Tony replied, his voice as light as a leaf in the wind, "I don't care what's been done, I want him back."

"But--" Clint started. 

Natasha shushed him. She adjusted her hold on Tony and nodded, getting him out of the crypt. "Then we save him." 

"Good," Tony murmured, "good. Can we not tell Peter about all of this?"

"He knows," Bruce said, not even looking sorry about it. "And he's so pissed at you like we are."

"Shit," Tony grumbled. 

He let Natasha and Clint put him in the back of her car, his friend kindly letting his head rest in her lap while Clint took the driver's seat. It was clear that Steven was being put in Fury's car in case of emergency purposes. 

Steve saved him before they lost each other. Tony was going to save him in return.

Being a Slayer sucked ass but Tony wouldn't trade in finding Steve because of it. 

Now he was about to find Steve all over again. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudos are appreciated!


End file.
